Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 14 Dec 2011, 6:32pm
Or get a Mac.Alex L wrote:Don't use an anti virus program. No problems.
I love Linux
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IT security - AVG
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Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 14 Dec 2011, 7:04pm
Mick F wrote:Or get a Mac.Alex L wrote:Don't use an anti virus program. No problems.
I love Linux
Didn't see you as an Apple fanboy
Still not as secure as Linux or BSD. Beat XP by a mile though
Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 15 Dec 2011, 11:17am
Yep.
Got two MacBooks, one elderly iBook, and a big iMac (with 1Tb of hard drive) in the living room for radio, DVDs, music, photographs, data storage, general entertainment, movies ........... and digital freeview TV if we had a license and aerial.
Got two MacBooks, one elderly iBook, and a big iMac (with 1Tb of hard drive) in the living room for radio, DVDs, music, photographs, data storage, general entertainment, movies ........... and digital freeview TV if we had a license and aerial.
Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 15 Dec 2011, 5:49pm
Mick F wrote:Yep.
Got two MacBooks, one elderly iBook, and a big iMac (with 1Tb of hard drive) in the living room for radio, DVDs, music, photographs, data storage, general entertainment, movies ........... and digital freeview TV if we had a license and aerial.
Someone's made of money
Going to have to get a Fedora flag and cycle past your house waving it. I don't have a TV license. Do you find you keep getting letters, demanding you buy a license?Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 15 Dec 2011, 6:15pm
Alex L wrote:Mick F wrote:Or get a Mac.Alex L wrote:Don't use an anti virus program. No problems.
I love Linux
Didn't see you as an Apple fanboy
Still not as secure as Linux or BSD. Beat XP by a mile though
Should I point out that osx is bsd (or rather a fork)
Neither Linux nor OSX are immune, but they were at least designed for multiuser environment with differing levels of privilege.
A well built and maintained Windows bad can be OK too, but they are a bit like hens teeth.
Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 16 Dec 2011, 7:37am
No.Alex L wrote:. I don't have a TV license. Do you find you keep getting letters, demanding you buy a license?
Just a "reminder" from time to time and a promt to get on line and fill in a declaration. Been just over two years now without the telly.
Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 16 Dec 2011, 10:14am
[XAP]Bob wrote:Alex L wrote:Mick F wrote:Or get a Mac.
Didn't see you as an Apple fanboy
Still not as secure as Linux or BSD. Beat XP by a mile though
Should I point out that osx is bsd (or rather a fork)
Neither Linux nor OSX are immune, but they were at least designed for multiuser environment with differing levels of privilege.
So was XP. It's just that it generally doesn't get deployed and used that way. XP is ultimately derived from NT 3.1, which was as you say designed for a multiuser environment with differing levels of privilege. A lot of misinformed criticism of XP derives from the belief that it was Win 9x with security "bolted on" after the event. It wasn't.
Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 16 Dec 2011, 11:00am
The nature of Open Source makes it more secure though. I knew OSX was Unix based but I thought that BSD had licensing restraints which prevented closing the source or charging a fee (except distribution).
Attempting to make everything backwards compatible by default gives huge opportunity for exploit. Plus anyone running Microsoft software is vulnerable in the same way. I used an exploit Microsoft Word back in school to access the high level files including what must be classed as sensitive information. Naturally, when I told the IT techs they did nothing about it. Then when someone else used the exploit, they blamed it on me.
@Mick F: After already telling them I don't need one, I have received a letter telling me "WE HAVE OPENED AN INVESTIGATION". Why they have to use a monospaced font in capitals is beyond me.
Attempting to make everything backwards compatible by default gives huge opportunity for exploit. Plus anyone running Microsoft software is vulnerable in the same way. I used an exploit Microsoft Word back in school to access the high level files including what must be classed as sensitive information. Naturally, when I told the IT techs they did nothing about it. Then when someone else used the exploit, they blamed it on me.
@Mick F: After already telling them I don't need one, I have received a letter telling me "WE HAVE OPENED AN INVESTIGATION". Why they have to use a monospaced font in capitals is beyond me.
Re: IT security - AVG
Posted: 17 Dec 2011, 10:26am
Anti-virus software is likely the biggest computing lie ever sold, it is not the elixir all and sundry claim it to be. It's a bit like locking the front door, but displaying all your valuables in the windows, once a piece of malware is past the AV software it can do as it pleases and I've yet to find a piece of AV software that cannot be compromised (it is after all reactive and retroactive).
To keep a PC running as it should, you need to tighten security in Windows in the first instance.
1. Always log on to your computer with a user level (non-admin) account (and change the password to something personal on your admin account). This prevents you (and any potential nasty) from installing programs/altering critical parts of the system without first calling on the admin account, which only you should know the password to.
2. Create a software whitelist, basically a list of software that is allowed to run. Anything not on this list won't run (including any nasties).
3. Use a sandbox program for your browser, a sandbox is basically a scratchpad that presents itself to the program as if it is getting native access to Windows, when infact it's operating inside a contained storage space. Anything inside this space cannot move from the sandbox to Windows itself unless you choose to let it do so. I use Sandboxie for browsing, which has a free version available.
You can find out how to do the above steps here.
There are other things that go without saying, like letting Windows automatically download and install security fixes etc.
This is not to say AV software is without it's merit, but you can succesfully run a computer without AV software, if it's configured in secure way in the first instance. This can be helpful for older computers as AV demands more and more RAM and wastes times needlessly scanning the same files ad infinitum. Locked down securely enough, even if you were to become infected by some nasty, your PC will continue running unaffected, as the access the virus/malware needs (and is invariably left wide open in Windows) has been blocked.
To keep a PC running as it should, you need to tighten security in Windows in the first instance.
1. Always log on to your computer with a user level (non-admin) account (and change the password to something personal on your admin account). This prevents you (and any potential nasty) from installing programs/altering critical parts of the system without first calling on the admin account, which only you should know the password to.
2. Create a software whitelist, basically a list of software that is allowed to run. Anything not on this list won't run (including any nasties).
3. Use a sandbox program for your browser, a sandbox is basically a scratchpad that presents itself to the program as if it is getting native access to Windows, when infact it's operating inside a contained storage space. Anything inside this space cannot move from the sandbox to Windows itself unless you choose to let it do so. I use Sandboxie for browsing, which has a free version available.
You can find out how to do the above steps here.
There are other things that go without saying, like letting Windows automatically download and install security fixes etc.
This is not to say AV software is without it's merit, but you can succesfully run a computer without AV software, if it's configured in secure way in the first instance. This can be helpful for older computers as AV demands more and more RAM and wastes times needlessly scanning the same files ad infinitum. Locked down securely enough, even if you were to become infected by some nasty, your PC will continue running unaffected, as the access the virus/malware needs (and is invariably left wide open in Windows) has been blocked.